tonight's question, in light of the president's remarks, will a fiscal cliff deal get done? text "a" for yes, text "b" for no to 622639 or go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com. i'll bring you the results later in the show. joining me now is sheldon whitehouse from rhode island. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> sir, this is serious, this is even dire. are you encouraged by the meeting today and the president's remarks in the aftermath of that meeting? >> well, i think that the decision to move the forum for the negotiations to the senate was a necessary one. i have a lot of confidence in harry reid's negotiating ability. mitch mcconnell is a veteran negotiator, and i think there's a far better prospect of something being worked out in the senate than there was dealing with speaker boehner and his completely dysfunctional house republican party. >> sure. well, abiding by convention and of course protocol, the senate won't return until sunday. will there be enough time for the senate leaders to really craft a deal that is substantiative and makes a difference,